CDP Architect

Job Description:

The CDP Architect is a consultant first and a technologist second, with the technical depth to back it up. You will own the technical solution for several enterprise clients at once. You will guide each from the first workshop through delivery and into steady state, and you will make sure the data platforms they have invested in produce measurable business results.

You will work on Adobe Experience Platform, Real-Time CDP, and Adobe Journey Optimizer, alongside other leading CDPs such as Salesforce Data Cloud, Treasure Data, Twilio Segment, Lytics, ActionIQ, and Growthloop, and the cloud data platforms around them.

This role exists to help clients get value out of the technology they already own. Clients rarely struggle because a feature is missing. They struggle because data is fragmented, identity is unresolved, teams are misaligned, or nobody has tied the platform to a business outcome. You will diagnose that, explain it plainly to a vice president and to an engineer, and lead the team that fixes it.

What makes this an engaging role

• Technical owner for two or more engagements at a time, accountable for architecture quality, delivery risk, and client confidence.

• Trusted advisor to client directors and vice presidents, not only to practitioners.

• Technical lead for pods of architects, engineers, developers, and QA, setting direction and mentoring.

• People-management is not required. However, this individual should have the temperament and ability to manage direct reports if warranted.

• Active contributor to pursuits and statements of work: scoping, estimating, and shaping the solution story.

• Builder of reusable assets for the practice, including standards, accelerators, and playbooks.

Key Responsibilities

Drive client value

• Lead discovery and assessments that connect the client's CDP and martech stack to business outcomes such as revenue, retention, cost to serve, and speed to market.

• Build a value roadmap for each client: what to fix, build, or retire, in what order, and what each step is worth.

• Present findings and recommendations to executives in plain language, with clear tradeoffs and a recommended path. Write the decision memo, not only the diagram.

• Partner with analytics and measurement teams to show the return on technology investment after launch.

• Spot opportunities during delivery and bring them to account leadership with a sound technical case.

Architect and design

• Design end to end CDP architecture: data ingestion and egress, XDM and schema models, identity resolution, profile and audience strategy, and activation to channels and journeys.

• Diagnose and remediate identity and profile problems, such as linking rules, profile collapse, and merge policy.

• Define integrations across the stack, including cloud warehouses and lakes (for example Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, AWS, and Microsoft Fabric), CRM, email and messaging platforms, ad platforms, and data collection (Web SDK, tags, and event forwarding).

• Record architecture decisions with options, tradeoffs, and rationale so clients and teams can see why a path was chosen.

• Review designs and builds by others for quality, scalability, performance, and cost.

Lead delivery

• Serve as technical lead on delivery: set standards, remove blockers, and manage dependencies across strategy, marketing, analytics, technology, finance, and customer success.

• Find and resolve platform issues, including client data feed problems, from ingestion through distribution, before they become client issues.

• Estimate, size, and sequence work. Raise risk early to delivery and account leads.

• Mentor engineers, developers, and junior architects through design reviews and pairing on hard problems.

Bring AI into the work

• Use AI assistants and coding agents daily to speed up discovery, design, documentation, QA, and build.

• Design and build agents, automations, and chatbots that connect to client and internal stacks through APIs and MCP integrations, with guardrails for privacy, accuracy, and human oversight.

• Contribute to the team's AI accelerator library and share what works with colleagues.

• Help clients decide where AI belongs in their data and journey stack, and where it does not.

Protect the client and Merkle

• Apply security, privacy, and consent best practices in every design.

• Keep documentation and controls strong enough to satisfy client audit requirements.

• Align solutions with Merkle standards and industry best practice.

Grow the practice

• Stay current on CDP and martech innovation across Adobe, Salesforce, and independent vendors, and form a point of view.

• Turn recurring client requests into repeatable assets and better internal processes.

• Support pursuits, orals, and client workshops.

Required Qualifications

• Eight or more years in marketing technology, data architecture, or data engineering, including four or more years in a consulting or client facing role.

• Hands on depth in at least one enterprise CDP, preferably Adobe Experience Platform and Real-Time CDP, Adobe  Journey Optimizer and working knowledge of at least one other (Salesforce Data Cloud, Treasure Data, Segment, Tealium, mParticle, Lytics, ActionIQ, or Growthloop).

• Strong command of data modeling and identity: XDM and schema design, identity resolution, and profile unification.

• Strong SQL, scripting in Python or JavaScript, API fluency (for example Swagger or Postman), and ETL or ELT practices.

• A current Expert level certification, such as Adobe Real-Time CDP Developer Expert, or an equivalent. If not held at hire, earned within six months.

• Executive presence and verbal communication: able to run a workshop with a marketing leadership team and a design review with data engineers on the same day, and to explain a complex concept so a non technical stakeholder can act on it.

• Strong written communication, including architecture decision records, recommendations, and client ready documentation.

• Proven ability to lead without authority in a matrixed environment across strategy, marketing, analytics, technology, finance, and customer success.

• Working fluency with AI tools, with examples of how you have used them, or built with them, to deliver better or faster work.

• Understanding of security and privacy best practices.

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

• Stay on top of emerging trends and software for customer-centric digital experience personalization

• Continued efforts to mature your competencies and skill sets related to experience personalization at scale
• Stay abreast of industry technology innovations, new business practices, and third-party technology solutions.
• Help us continuously improve by identifying, creating, and enhancing internal systems and processes based on recurring client requests or evolving industry standards.

Preferred Qualifications

• Adobe Experience Cloud depth beyond the CDP: Adobe Journey Optimizer, Customer Journey Analytics, Data Collection and Web SDK, AEM, Campaign, Target, Marketo, or Merkury.
• Experience with cloud data platforms such as Snowflake, Salesforce Data Cloud, Databricks, BigQuery, AWS, Azure, or Microsoft Fabric.

• Experience building agents, MCP servers, or other AI integrations against marketing and data platforms.

• Industry experience in financial services, insurance, healthcare and life sciences, travel and hospitality, retail, or media.

• Consulting or agency background, including scoping, estimating, and presenting in pursuits.

• Track record of mentoring and growing other technologists.

At dentsu, we believe great work happens when we’re connected. Our hybrid way of working combines remote flexibility with regular in-person collaboration to spark ideas and strengthen our teams. Many of our employees who live within commuting distance (90 minutes) from one of our Headquarter or Hub Offices (New York, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles) are required to work in the office 2-3 days per week including one Team Day. The minimum number of days may vary by office and role. Dentsu may designate other HQ or Hub offices at any time. Those who do not live near an office may be designated as a remote employee, depending on the role and business needs. Regardless of your work location, we expect you to be flexible to meet the needs of our Company and clients, which may include attendance in an office from time to time.

The annual salary range for this position is $150,750 - $175,000. Placement within the salary range is based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and other factors permitted by law. 

Benefits available with this position include: 

• Medical, vision, and dental insurance

• Life insurance

• Short-term and long-term disability insurance

• 401k

• Flexible paid time off

• At least 15 paid holidays per year

• Paid sick and safe leave, and

• Paid parental leave

Dentsu also complies with applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, in accordance with its plans and policies.  For further details regarding Dentsu benefits, please visit www.dentsubenefitsplus.com.

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Dentsu is committed toproviding equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees. We do this without regard to race,color, national origin,sex , sexual orientation, gender identity, age, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, ancestry, physical or mental disability, marital status, political affiliation, religious practices and observances, citizenship status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected under applicable federal, state, or local law. 

Dentsu is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to, among others, individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans. If you need an accommodation because of a disability to search and apply for a career opportunity with us, please send an e-mail to ApplicantAccommodations@dentsu.com by clicking on the link to letus  know the nature of your accommodation request and your contact information. We are here to support you.